A suppressor is a device attached to or incorporated into the barrel of a firearm that reduces the amount of noise and also usually the amount of muzzle flash generated by firing the weapon. A suppressor is usually a metal cylinder with internal mechanisms such as baffles to reduce the sound of firing by slowing the escaping propellant gas and sometimes by reducing the velocity of the bullet. The suppressor is typically a hollow cylindrical piece of machined metal (steel, aluminum, or titanium) containing expansion chambers that attaches to the muzzle of a pistol, submachine gun or rifle. These “can”-type suppressors may be attached to and detached from various firearms.
Suppressors reduce noise by allowing the rapidly expanding gases from the firing of the cartridge to be briefly diverted or trapped inside a series of hollow chambers. The trapped gas expands and cools, and its pressure and velocity decreases as it exits the suppressor. The chambers are typically divided by baffles. There are typically a number of chambers in a suppressor, depending on the intended use and design details. Baffles are usually circular metal dividers which separate the expansion chambers. Each baffle has a hole in its center to permit the passage of the bullet through the suppressor and towards the target. Baffles are typically made of stainless steel, aluminum, titanium or alloys such as Inconel, and are either machined out of solid metal, cast, molded, or stamped out of sheet metal.
Baffles may be separated by spacers, which keep them aligned at a specified distance apart inside the suppressor. Many baffles are manufactured as a single assembly with their spacers, and several suppressor designs have all the baffles attached together with spacers as a one-piece “monocore” baffle stack. Modern baffles are usually carefully shaped to divert the propellant gases effectively into the chambers. This shaping can be a slanted flat surface, canted at an angle to the bore, or a conical or otherwise curved surface. One popular technique is to have alternating angled surfaces through the stack of baffles.
Two significant disadvantages exist with existing prior art suppressors. First, current center fire handgun suppressor technology does not allow the user to completely disassemble all the components of the suppressor, including the piston housing and the piece parts down to the unobstructed smooth tube, for cleaning and maintenance without any special tools or manufacturing equipment. Existing technology allows only for partial disassembly, including piston and baffle removal, but excluding the piston housing which is retained/attached to the inside tube wall. As a result, the cleaning process is degraded because of the user's inability to completely clean the tube. The inability to clean the tube/piston housing interface area permits carbon buildup around the retained piston housing. This carbon buildup degrades the noise reduction performance of the suppressor.
Second, users have been required to use any given prior art suppressor in a fixed design configuration. Handguns and rifles have different muzzle gas pressures using the same ammunition. Because of the pressure differences, and because of the length of the barrel, the configuration of the baffle ports in relation to each other affects the silencer sound reduction performance. A specific example of the performance results achieved through different baffle port arrangements is a comparison of the .22 LR handgun with the .22 LR rifle. When the baffle ports are aligned in a straight orientation, the suppressor performs best on the handgun having a high muzzle gas pressure. When the baffle stack is oriented so each successive baffle port is turned 90° to create a spiral layout, the suppressor performs best on the rifle having a low muzzle gas pressure. As a result, a user seeking optimal performance for both firearm types is required to have two separate prior art suppressors that cannot be transferred without performance degradation between a handgun and a rifle using the same ammunition. Furthermore, it is possible that an individual firearm and ammunition load combination will be best served by an arrangement of baffle ports that is not commercially available in a prior art suppressor, resulting in the user having to settle for a sub-optimal suppressor.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved suppressor with configurable baffles that can be configured in a user-selectable orientation to maximize a desired performance characteristic, including sound suppression and/or bullet accuracy. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill at least some of these needs. In this respect, the suppressor with configurable baffles according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a device suppressor with configurable baffles that can be configured in a user-selectable orientation to maximize a desired performance characteristic.